Kate Westbrook - Recordings - The Westbrook Blake

The Westbrook Blake
Bright As Fire

Mike Westbrook

Music Mike Westbrook
Lyrics William Blake
Arranged by Adrian Mitchell

1. The Fields
2. I See Thy Form
3. London Song
4. A Poison Tree
5. Holy Thursday
6. Let The Slave
incorporating The Price Of Experience

Phil Minton - vocal, trumpet
Kate Westbrook - tenor horn, vocal, piccolo
Mike Davies - piccolo trumpet, trumpet
Dave Hancock - trumpet
Henry Lowther - trumpet
Malcolm Griffiths - trombone
Alan Sinclair - tuba
Alan Wakeman - sopranino, soprano & tenor saxophones
Chris Biscoe - soprano & alto saxophones, alto clarinet
Dave Barry - drums, percussion, tympani, tubular bells
Georgie Born - cello
Chris Laurence - bass
Mike Westbrook - piano, speech

Recorded January 1980
first released on LP on Original Records (ORA 203)
subsequently issued on LP, cassette & CD by Impetus Records
Issued on CD 1991

Currently unavailable on CD

Available as a FLAC & MP3 download only (see above)

Kate Westbrook Recordings

Track Listing

Sound Samples

Personnel

Information

Reviews

"...Arguably the most majestic work to appear in recent years. It's marriage of Inspirational lyrics and uplifting scoring, performed by some of the most talented musicians in Europe, harks back to the jazz suites of Ellington..."
THE GUARDIAN

"Mike Westbrook makes full use of his two striking vocalists, Kate Westbrook and Phil Minton, and coaxes fervent performances from horn men Chris Biscoe and Alan Wakeman. He finds music to snatch the ecstasy of 'I See Thy Form' and desolation of 'London Song', turns 'A Poison Tree' into a blood-curdling tango. and fashions a magnificent anthem for 'Let The Slave/The Price of Experience' , Blake's great paeans to freedom, dignity, and compassion."
THE WIRE

"Perhaps the greatest work in all British jazz"
INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY.

"Westbrook's settings are among the greatest British music of the century...bold, optimistic and inspiring".
THE INDEPENDENT.

"Bright as Fire pulls no emotional punches, Blake's visionary words matched by some of Westbrook's most trenchant writing".
Alyn Shipton - THE TIMES

"It's one of the great fortuitous yokings together of the century: Blake's forthright lyrics, and Westbrook's English-Ellington music, the words brilliantly sung by Kate Westbrook and Phil Minton and accompanied by a septet with three great sax players in Peter Whyman, Chris Biscoe and Alan Wakeman".
Phil Johnson - THE INDEPENDENT

Selected Recordings